US 'still working' to reunite 2000 illegal migrant kids with families

The US government still has 2053 children in its custody who were separated from their parents under President Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" immigration policy and officials say there is a "well-coordinated" process for reuniting families.

An administration official said today 522 children were able to be reunited because their parents came back from court proceedings quickly enough that the children had not yet been transferred to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services.

The more than 2000 children separated from their parents currently remain in department facilities.

"The United States government knows the location of all children in its custody and is working to reunite them with their families," a Department of Homeland Security fact sheet said.

More than 2000 children separated from their parents currently remain in department facilities. Picture: EPA (EPA)

The new details came after more than two months of confusion how detained migrant parents, who are shuttled from facility to facility run by different government agencies, would ever reunite with their children, who are sent to shelters and foster homes scattered across the country.

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The Port Isabel detention centre in Texas will serve as "the primary family reunification and removal centre" for adults in ICE custody, the statement said.

An undated handout photo made available on 18 June 2018 by the US Customs and Border Patrol showing people inside a United States Border Patrol Processing Center, in McAllen, Texas, USA. (AAP)Tent shelters used to hold separated migrant family members along the Mexico-US border in Fabens, Texas. Picture: AP (AP)

Many of the parents are planning to claim asylum, lawyers and advocates who have spoken with them said. The fact sheet did not say how reunifications would be handled in those cases.

The fact sheet said children are given the chance to speak with a "vetted parent, guardian or relative" within 24 hours of arriving at a facility run by Department of Health and Human Services.

Sirine Shebaya, a senior staff lawyer with Muslim Advocates, said she and two other lawyers met about 70 detained Central American migrants at Port Isabel on Friday and yesterday.

In this photo provided by US Customs and Border Protection, people who've been taken into custody related to cases of illegal entry into the United States, sit in one of the cages at a facility in McAllen, Texas, Sunday, June 17, 2018. (AP)A boy and father from Honduras are taken into custody by US Border Patrol agents near the US-Mexico Border on June 12, 2018 near Mission, Texas. (Getty)

All but one had been separated from their children, she added in an interview before the fact sheet was published.

Several of the migrants had been given a number to call to try to locate their children, but found their calls would not go through or no one picked up, she said.

If they did manage to get someone on the line, they were often told they would get a call back – useless to them while in a detention centre.

"When they do get a phone call, it's a one- to two-minute phone call and the kids frequently don't know where they are," she said.

"Some kids know, 'OK I'm in Michigan,' but they don't know any more than that."